Spring Makeup Collections 2016: The lazy girl’s round-up

Ah, spring. In the makeup world, that means release dates in December and January, when most of us don’t even think of delicate blossoms and balmy temps, but enjoy Christmas, snow and hot chocolate. Maybe that’s the reason why the new spring releases weren’t really on my radar, although most of them already came out. I still have my winter decoration up and enjoy scented candles with warm scents, thank you very much.

As you might know, spring collections are my least favourite collections, because I hate wearing all those pastels and light colours mostly associated with spring releases. Thankfully, while last year’s batch was awfully flowery and pastel-y across all brands, this year’s crop seems more divers. Yay!

DIOR

Let’s start with the most traditional spring release, which gives me finally the opportunity to use this:

Yup. It’s even called Glowing Gardens. Nevertheless, it’s pretty, and the quality (not a given with Dior these days) is pretty decent (skip the palettes, though – the pigmentation is not as it should be). Dior makes it a bit difficult for international beauty addicts, because you’ll never know what exactly they release in which country – the core products may be the same, but the rest will differ. So, wherever you are: the powder highlighter in Glowing Nude may be a dupe for MAC’s cult product Whisper of Guilt and may be worth the purchase. There’re also five cream eyeshadows in stick form – one end is rounded, for lid application, the other is a darker liner. Seems a bit gimmicky, but Dior’s cream eyeshadows are usually good. The blush is a basic pink, but nice, ditto the lip products (two Rouge Diors, two Rouge Dior Baumes, and three Rouge Brilliants). If you’re a fan of Dior’s Lip Glow, which enhances your natural lip colour, you’re in for a treat – there’s an additional lip liner and a Lip Glow Pomade in the line-up. Nail polishes are nice, if you want to spring for them (but not so exceptional that you have to have them – look for Essie’s regular line instead, I bet you could dupe every one of Dior’s).

YSL

A similar colour scheme to Dior, but instead of flowers, YSL randomly pulled the name BOHO STONES out of the hat. What’s that supposed to mean? Is there any meaning in it at all? Are stones particularly boho and isn’t boho chic somehow sooooo 2014? Anyways, the promo pic looks particularly sleepy and stupid (put away that Photoshop, pronto!), but I can’t find fault with a lot of this collection’s products.

The palette swatches lovely, and its shades, ranging from dark green to peach, aren’t too sugary-sweet. The face powder certainly looks lovely, but swatched a bit chalky. I can’t say how it performs on the face, though. The new gel blushes certainly look scarily pigmented, yet swatch sheer and, most important, not patchy. The lip products are a bit boring in comparison: two glosses, two Vernis a Levres (aka glossy tints), two Rouge Volupte Shines. Both nail polish are truly unusual and lovely: Love Pink, a baby pink with green shimmer, and Peace Green, a light, minty green with pink shimmer. A green and pink mascara – oh well. Next.

GIVENCHY

Well, leave it to Givenchy to pare their collections down – you won’t find 20 products in this one! – and to set focal points for their looks. I don’t like the look, but that’s another thing. In fact, the promo picture could be titled ‘my worst nightmare’. Look at that bluuuueeeee! The last time I wore that I was 16 and didn’t know better. At least they managed to capture the Pantone 2016 colours. ‘La Revelation Originelle’ centres on the Ombre Cotoure cream eyeshadows in yellow and light blue.

They are partnered with the permanent Le Prisme blush in Lune Rose (perm), and the very pretty Poudre Lumiere Originelle. This isn’t a highlighter, though, but something more akin to a finishing powder, and I’m not sure it’s worth the money. There isn’t any lipstick to accompany the look, but a lip scrub and a lip balm. The nail polish hits it again on the mark of Pantone’s Rose Quartz – it’s a light rose colour and is called Rose Divin. Eyeliners and mascaras are permanent.

LANCOME

‘From Paris with Love’ reminds me so much of this ice cream ad that I can’t see anything else:

It doesn’t really help either that The Body Shop has something similar to the ‘cubes’ and between yucky discounter frozen yoghurt and TBS the whole collection comes off rather cheap. The colours are spring-like and similar to Dior, and at least the design of the blush and cube packaging is super cute? But all in all, the aesthetic seems to be aimed at very young girls, and I’m not sure very young girls are the focus group for Lancome makeup. Ok, small things: There’re three new Lip Lovers and four new Vernis in Love shades, and quality-wise, nobody can find fault with both lines. Both eyeshadow palettes seem very wearable, pairing pastels with neutral shades, which is the way to go with most pastel shades. But honestly, I’ve expected more from Lisa Eldridge.

GUERLAIN

I can’t make head nor tails of Guerlain’s spring collection. Refreshingly, they neither blabber about petals in spring nor dump a plethora of products on you, but tell you about their Meteorites:

“In 1987, Guerlain, the architect of light, launched Meteorites: the first loose illuminating and color-correcting powder that came in the form of multi-colored pearls. (…)  There is no mistaking the enviable radiance of a woman’s skin when she looks well rested, healthy and vibrant. Today, Guerlain reveals the secret to her ethereal glow with a joyful, luminous and colorful 2016 Spring Collection.”

I’m baffled nevertheless. The collection *seems* to centre around the Meteorites primer and pressed powder and the luminous and perfect skin both products are supposed to give you. I find it rather fitting that the accompanying two lipsticks are from the KissKiss line (quite glossy and pigmented, but not too overwhelming if your focal point is skin) and are light pink (and they become permanent, too). They don’t distract from the luminous skin as well as the new Crayon Yeux, an eyeliner in five colours. But then Guerlain throws a blush (warm pink) and one yellow eyeshadow into the mix and veers away from that image of a grown-up woman who cares for her skin and doesn’t faff around with pointless products (I get a very genuine French inspiration from that, different from Lancome’s cutesy French approach) and end with ‘Smile’ and ‘Enjoy’ embossed on said blush and shadow in a font that reminds me of Tetris?! How does that work out?! Guerlain, I don’t need your products to tell me to enjoy life. And if you insist, use a prettier font. And include them in a different collection.

CHANEL

And now for something completely different. (Never thought I’d say that about Chanel, of all collections. But here we are!) LA Sunrise looks like my perfect summer collection – a lot of bright, saturated colours, a powder blush with a great design, and nice visuals to go with it. (Although I really have to wonder which products – apart from photoshop – they used on the model’s face, because the quad it ain’t.) I love nearly everything about it. The quad swatches beautifully and all four shades pair well with each other (don’t be intimidated by the teal – it’s not as bright as it seems). The blush, of course, is pure love. I personally won’t buy the Illusion d’Ombres eyeshadows because I’m always afraid that they dry out (and they will after a certain time), but they’re extremely nice and swatch well. I neither will buy the eyeliners, because I think they don’t offer a good value for your money. The Rouge Coco Shines add a summery vibe to the collection with their pink and coral glossiness, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t wear them in spring as well. The nail polish is a nice purple jelly, not as ground-breaking as Chanel makes it look, but very nice nevertheless, and look, I haven’t complained about ANYTHING in this collection and I love it and want to keep it and call it George.

NARS

Ok, in a nutshell? Perfect.

All right, if you still want to know more –

Nars manages to come out with a collection that’s primarily all soft, neutral and wearable colours and then throws something unexpected into the mix. Everything is also extremely wearable, but it’s not completely random – all the pieces are connected to each other and can be combined beautifully. Completely appropriate for spring, but still fresh. Nouvelle Vogue consists of three Dual-Intensity Eyeshadows in mint, blue and pink (the pops of colour), and an eyeshadow duo called Hammamet that consists of a matte beige and a bronzey peach shade, two glosses and two lipsticks (of the MLBB variety) – the neutrals. The blush is a very soft, muted orchid pink. It’s a very elegant and lady-like collection, which isn’t boring at all – no small feat.

ARMANI

Like Nars, Armani goes neutral with a collection called Sepia Spring, inspired by old sepia tinted pictures. Not like Nars at all is both execution and intent. We have exactly seven products here, all in varying shades of (reddish) brown and beige. There’re three nail polishes, three Rouge d’Armani Sheer lipsticks and one face powder, the Armani Sepia Palette with its distinctive pattern. I’ve some concerns about this one – it’s supposed to suit all skintones, giving them a light, warm tint (sepia), mattifying, evening and brightening. If it actually can do all this depends very much on your skintone and type, I’m afraid, and given the price I’d definitely advice swatching this one.

Are you tempted by anything from the Spring collections? I already got the YSL nail polish in Peace Green and the Chanel Sunkiss Ribbon blush, and am very tempted by Chanel’s nail polish and palette as well… We’ll see what will happen! 😉